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Equipment and technology to reduce labor requirements for vegetable producers and processor is critical for remaining competitive. The design and performance of a prototype hydrounloading system for machine harvested, bulk transported vegetables is presented. As configured, the system provides a semi-automated means to unload long, flat trucks and trailers that do not dump, and is a cost effective and safer alternative to labor-intensive manual and dumping platform unloading techniques. Performance of the prototype system for pickling cucumbers indicates that unloading times for a 20,000 kg (1,000 bushel) load have been reduced to 7 minutes. Furthermore, the system was found to provide cleaner product into the grading station, thus increasing throughput. This benefit was most apparent when handling product harvested under less desirable (wet) conditions. Additional work is still needed to quantify the effects of hydro-unloading on product quality.